


Open Season

by JoeMcJoe



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-07-15 06:46:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7212171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeMcJoe/pseuds/JoeMcJoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If I were writing the Season 2 opener, it might go like this...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Various people arrive, and we suspect there are problems. And what is happening with Alex?

The office of Talionis Inc. was small, brightly lit but untidy. Papers were stacked nearly as high as the fake plants. Two desks sat back to back. At one desk, a bald man was typing. A dark-haired man was watching his monitor at the other desk. From the sounds the computer made, he was watching porn.

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” the bald man told his co-worker.

“What? Luthor’s been arrested and arraigned. No bail. I’m safer now than I’ve ever been.”

The lights flickered once, as if someone had turned them off and then on.

“That was to get your attention,” came a woman’s voice. She was standing there by the light switch, blonde and in a power suit with shoulder pads that were just coming back in fashion. “Baldy, you get to keep working here.” Behind her were two other women, both in chauffeur outfits. One was African-American and one was Asian. The blonde walked in and leaned over the desk. “Porn doesn’t belong at work. Turn it off, please.” The man wasn’t fast enough, because she yanked the power cord from the socket. “With this kind of shoddy help, I see why my brother got arrested.”

“So I’m fired?” said the man. His voice cracked.

“I don’t have the authority to fire you. The terms of the, let’s call it regency, don’t allow that.” She smiled. “But I can transfer you. I think you’d make an excellent experimental _volunteer.”_

“You can’t. I quit.”

“I’ve read your contract. You can’t quit. Not if you want your wife to stay in that so-expensive clinic.”

The dark-haired man looked at her.

“But if you want to quit, I won’t stop you.” She pulled out her phone. “I gather that stopping the treatment in the middle is kind of like having the staff leave halfway through receiving a radiation treatment without turning anything off.”

The man slowly shook his head.

“Excellent. I thought you’d see reason. Mercy will take you to your new workplace.”

The dark-haired man slumped out with the Asian chauffeur.

“And you. I need everything you have on Supergirl, including those files you stole from Maxwell Lord.” She cut him off. “Yes, I know about those. You work for me, now. Let’s get started.”

#

James Olsen stood in the doorway of Kara’s office. “He’s coming.”

Kara looked up from her desk. “What? Who?”

“Clark.”

Kara’s eyes got wide. “No, he can’t. I refuse. I won’t see him here.”

“Officially, he’s going to drop by to see his former co-workers. I did work with him. So did Cat.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Cat told me,” James said and grinned at her.

“Okay, now I’m insulted.” She threw her hands up. “It’s okay if I say he can’t come visit, but it’s awful if he doesn’t even ask me.”

“I’m sure that he’ll find some excuse to visit you, Kara.” He grinned again. “Or maybe not. CatCo is a huge company.”

“Get out, you, you _tease,_ you.”

Winn appeared behind James. “Hey. Did you hear?” James moved to one side.

“Yes,” said Kara. “He didn’t tell me he was coming. He told Miss Grant, but not me. I’m not bitter.”

“But he’s…” Winn made a whooshing gesture. “Wow.”

“We don’t talk about that,” said James.

There was a beep. Everyone looked at their phone. “Mine,” said Kara. “Emergency. I should be able to get to Midvale, deal with this, and be back for the meeting in half an hour.”

“Emergency in Midvale?” asked James.

“Eliza has a problem,” Kara told him. She was gone.

“I think I liked it better before she had her own office,” Winn said. He hugged himself. “S— Clark Kent.”

“He’s just a guy,” said James.

Winn just looked at him. Mindful of the thing he wasn’t supposed to talk about, Winn said, ”A...A Pulitzer Prize nominee.”

“I won a Pulitzer,” said James.

Winn shrugged. “Sorry. I forgot.”

#

In the interests of time, Kara flew down the stairs into the musty storm cellar. Eliza was standing over the pod and its open canopy. The pod was beeping. Eliza said, “It started beeping! And then it opened up!”

“But you’re okay?” Kara looked at the newly-revealed mechanism. “Strange. That’s not Kryptonian. The esthetic is all wrong.”

“Is it going to release something? Or does it need to cool off? Larger radiating surface area? Or what?” Eliza sat on the bench against the wall, between two piles of boxes of Jeremiah’s. “This is a bit outside my wheelhouse.”

Kara managed a smile. “Like a super powered teenage girl wasn’t?”

“But I loved you.” Eliza smiled back. “This? This is a machine.”

“But it will be a person. I can tell that much--it’s a version of a Kryptonian birthing matrix, and if I leave it at the DEO it might go to Cadmus. It’s lead-lined and it’s huge. They’ve scooped out the hibernation system to make it fit.”

“Hibernation system?”

Kara nodded. “Light years are long. Alex is so lucky she didn’t trigger the hibernation system when she rode my pod.” She frowned. “I don’t even know what a Kryptonian hibernation system would do to a human.”

“You’re saying that the pod was re-purposed somehow?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Someone used Kryptonian technology for their own purposes.”

“Someone from earth?”

Kara nodded. “The pod has to be Kal’s. I’ve never asked him what happened to his.”

“I asked him once. I wanted to look at it, but he told me it had been taken.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Kara pressed a stud on the birthing matrix. “That should stop the beeping.” One beeping stopped but another continued. Kara pulled out her phone. “Meeting. I gotta go.”

#

“Kara!” Miss Grant’s voice was imperious, but at least she had said Kara’s name right so it wasn’t trouble. “My office. My new assistant has rescheduled your meeting with Mr. Carr. This is important.”

“Yes, Miss Grant.”

Of course, with X-ray vision, there are fewer surprises. Kara knew that Clark Kent was sitting in the office, but she didn’t know why. Clark was in a suit, like usual, which hid his build to some extent. The tea set was on the table. They had obviously been visiting. Miss Grant said, “Kara, this is Clark Kent, from the Daily Planet. Clark, Kara Danvers. I used to work with him, back when he was a bumbling farm boy in a suit.”

Clark grinned. Kara realized that he was fond of Cat Grant. It was odd seeing someone as her equal.

“Now he’s a bumbling farm boy who interviews presidents. He wanted to meet you specifically, but he refused to tell me why. He has assured me that he will reveal the reason when he meets you. He has also assured me that he will not try to hire you away for the Planet.” Miss Grant sat at the couch, observing.

“Mr. Kent,” Kara said. They shook hands. “Hope it’s not too warm for you.”

“Call me Clark. It’s fine,” he said. “Heat and cold don’t bother me much.”

Miss Grant said, “Please. No small talk. We have work to do. Spring your surprise and let’s be on with it.”

“The curiosity is eating you up, isn’t it, Cat?” said Clark easily. She glared at him.

“Me too,” admitted Kara.

“Clark.” Miss Grant was tapping her foot. Kara recognized the signs of a class three eruption, but apparently Clark knew just how far to push her.

“All right.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“You got a smartphone?” said Miss Grant. “You were last of the Luddites.”

“Lois convinced me.” Kara sneaked a look at Miss Grant’s face. Eyes were being rolled. Clark fiddled with the phone for a moment. “Security features. It’s a Waynetech thing. Perry insisted on security.” Cat nodded. “These are scans of documents. I’ll mail them to you so you can look at them later. The upshot is, I think we’re related.”

“To the Danvers?” asked Kara.

“To your birth family. Your surname at the orphanage was Lee, right?” Kara nodded. She appeared on the orphanage records, but she hadn’t actually stayed there. “Well, if we follow the paper trail, it seems to indicate”—she admired his choice of words; he wasn’t saying that she was related to the Kents, but rather that the evidence showed it—“that your maternal grandfather was married to my mother’s aunt.”

“Oh.” She didn’t quite know what to say. Why do this? Why not claim an internship or something?

“I’m sure you’ve vetted it,” said Miss Grant, “but I’ll have my lawyers look at it.” Kara had no doubt the documents would show up as real. With Kal’s friends, they might even be official.

“Of course. I know it’s a lot to take in, Kara, but my mother and I have no other living relatives, so I’d like to get to know you.” To Miss Grant he said, “I should have done it outside of working hours, but this way I got to see you too.” He grinned again. “My sources tell me you keep the same kind of hours that you used to.”

Miss Grant made a face. “Things don’t run themselves. Are you free for lunch?”

“For you, I can be free. Can we invite Jimmy, too?”

She nodded. “You know he goes by James now?”

“I’ll try to remember that.” He turned to Kara and handed her a business card. “This is my private number. (This thing has two numbers.) I hope we can get together during my visit, but that’s entirely your choice.” He smiled again. “I have no problems acknowledging you as part of the family. From what I hear, you are destined for greatness.”

#

“What if she checks my computer?” Kara asked Winn. “Technically all of that belongs to her, to CatCo. She’ll see that I’ve been IMing Clark for years.”

“Do you care about any of the old IMs?” Kara looked at him. “Then it’s handled. I’ll do it. It’s no problem. It will look like Clark got added to your system today.”

“Thanks.”

“Do I, uh, get to meet him?”

“We’re supposed to have dinner. That’s public knowledge. Alex is coming. Officially meeting him.”

“And?”

“You can come. He might as well know that you know, though I’m sure James has told him.”

“Excellent! This is almost as good as a time-traveling superhuman friend.” He touched Kara’s arm. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. I just...it feels like things are spinning out of control. There’s the new job, and the Eliza thing, and the Alex thing—”

“How is the Alex thing?”

“Don’t ask. Now there’s a Clark thing, too. For years he was this figure who would show up once in a while. I mean, we have that monthly lunch in San Francisco, but we haven’t seen each other a lot, really. It’s a whole different relationship if he goes public with us.” She looked at Winn. “Change is good, right?”

“Good or bad, it’s necessary.” He touched her cheek. “You’ll do fine.” His gaze drifted over to one of the monitors. “In a minute. Because there’s a hostage situation downtown.”

“Thorul’s? That’s the restaurant that Clark and James and Miss Grant went to.”

“I guess they’re safe.”

Kara shook her head. “If he’s a hostage, he can’t do anything to protect them. He’s got to be Clark.” She looked at the clock. “And I’m supposed to meet Mr. Carr in ten minutes.” She sighed. “Being an assistant was easier.”

“Go! I’ll send an email on your behalf.”

“Thanks.” She paused. “No tick stories.”

Winn shooed her out.

#

They were eating ice cream after dinner. Clark and Kara had the biggest bowls. “Kara did great by the way.” He applauded her.

“I had stage fright, doing it in front of you. Can you believe that?”

“You did great. We get out of the restaurant and Cat says to me, ‘I’d forgotten how weird stuff gets around you, Clark.’ It got easier once I told people.” He touched his fist to James’ shoulder. “I’m surprised she hasn’t noticed that things are weird around you, Kara.”

“She did think I was Supergirl for a while.”

“Hmmm. Let me think how you got out of that.” He pointed his spoon at her. “You set up a video of yourself at some far location as Supergirl and were right with her as Kara.”

“Nope,” she said. “Used J’onn.”

“He did that for you?” Clark whistled. “You’ve really helped him out of his shell.”

“J’onn?” She snorted. “If anyone, Alex has done it.”

“I’m glad of it. I won’t work with Hank, but I’ll work with J’onn. Which reminds me that I have to ask him something.” He looked around the table. “I’m sorry that Alex couldn’t make it.”

“That’s a whole thing,” said Winn.

“Spill it. If Kara’s now my cousin, I’m sort of related to Alex too.”

“Not mine to tell, I’m afraid,” said Kara. “Kal— Why acknowledge me? I mean, I don’t mind, but why?”

“Swear not to tell?” He looked around the table. “All of you.” Everyone nodded. “I’m going to ask Lois to marry me, and I want you at the wedding. Not as Supergirl, as Kara Danvers.”

James smiled and shook his hand. “Congratulations, man!”

“Thanks.”

After the other congratulations, finally Kara said, “But she hates Lois Lane.”

Clark shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that. They’re rivals, sure, but they don’t hate each other. She’ll be invited, and Jimmy obviously.”

“James,” said Kara.

“Sorry, Jimmy.” He had some of the same adorkable manners that Kara had. “James. I forgot.”

James shrugged. “You get a pass.”

“I shouldn’t, though. You want to be called James. And art director!” He shook his head. “Congrats to you, pal. I couldn’t sit behind a desk.”

Winn said, “Kinda odd that you’d be a hostage when you’re only in town a couple of days.”

Clark shook his head. “I picked the restaurant because I knew they were going to attack it.” He regretfully put his spoon in his bowl, patted his stomach in a very farmhand gesture, and said, “It’s owned by Lex Luthor’s sister. She’s moved to National City, theoretically to escape her brother’s new notoriety.”

“And really?” asked James.

“I don’t know.” He held up his phone. “These are great, but there are some facts you can only get in person. Remember that, Madame Reporter.”

“Why have her own restaurant attacked?”

“Lois thinks it creates plausible deniability. I think that if they weren’t trying to take something, they were trying to leave something. Both could be true. I wouldn’t trust Lena Luthor.”

#

The phone rang just as Kara was getting into bed. She thought about not answering it, but then saw it was Miss Grant.

“Kara Danvers.”

Miss Grant said, “ _She’s_ here.”

“Excuse me?”

“Kent might be here because he’s looking up a long-lost relative, but there’s a story too. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here. Did he say anything?”

“Miss Grant, it’s very late.”

“I know. We’ve lost most of the day because I fell for that country bumpkin routine. Again. Well, actually, Kent is a country bumpkin. But she had a bigger plan. But she’d lie to get a scoop. So tell me about the visit.”

“He told us about...about lunch, and Supergirl, and his family.” Kara took a deep breath. “He also said that you don’t actually hate Lois Lane. You’re just rivals.”

Miss Grant laughed. “I don’t hate her. Why would you think I hate her?”

“Because you’re phoning me at one in the morning about her.”

“I don’t hate her. That would be making her important. But,” Miss Grant added fiercely, “I will not be scooped by her in my own city.”

“You should go to sleep, Miss Grant. We have to work tomorrow.”

“Yes. Of course. All hands meeting for the news department first thing tomorrow morning. We have to find out what she’s working on.”

“I’m not your assistant any more, Miss Grant.”

“I know. Just tell Livy to set up the meeting.”

“Of course. Good night, Miss Grant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for changing it, but I didn't think the extra bit went at the beginning of the next chapter. (It could, I could see that, but I didn't want it there.) Also, a little more description, a bit more text, her job description changed.... Little stuff.


	2. The New Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is the Alex problem? What is Kara's new job?
> 
> More scene setting...
> 
> Again, this is probably an AU because I'm making assumptions and answering cliffhangers. Any place I'm wrong forces a divergence.

Most people didn’t know that Alex could bake. They should not have been: Her mother baked the best chocolate pecan pie in twelve planets. Alex had taken up baking again as an adult to deal with constant stress, rather than drinking. Being in the DEO, she had to stay sharp. To her mind, baking was a science, and soothed her. Once she had been caught bringing home-made cookies to the DEO. Calling on her training, she had blamed them on her mother. 

Today was her day off, and she was elbow-deep in flour. She was wearing bright colours, taking a break from the somber mood of the DEO. 

There was a knock at the door. She ignored it, and the second, and the third, and gave the dough a vicious kneading.

“Danvers?” It was Hank’s voice. Normally he phoned, but she wasn’t answering the phone either. Still, Hank she would see.

“Coming!” She reached for a towel to clean her hands, but Hank was already there. She was sure she had locked the door. “Did you pick my lock?” 

“If that would make you happier, of course.” He blinked. “It’s only a seven pin Robson.” 

“And a dead bolt." She plopped into a kitchen chair. "This is an alien thing, isn’t it?” 

“I am concerned about you,” he said. He was in the dark suit he wore on missions. She had a brief image of him in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt—nah. Not his style.

“You’re avoiding the subject.”

“So are you.” He sat down in the other kitchen chair, with his legs spread and his elbows on his knees, the way he had those years ago in the jail. “Your sister has noticed the cookies.” 

Alex nodded. “I’m sorry they’re not Chocos,” she said. 

He waved that away. “What is wrong, Alex?”

“Well, at least you’re asking. You could just read my mind. Except you don’t do that.” She held up a hand. “How many months have we been looking? Five months? And my father is alive. We can’t find him. We should know! We have...we have someone with X-ray vision, for goodness’ sake! The DEO should have access to all the information about Cadmus and we don’t!”

“The Pentagon has known for years that I am against Cadmus. With the revelation that I am an alien, Cadmus has moved to a new location. Our chance to get to the old location was scuttled by the events of Myriad. Now even Colonel Harper does not know where it is.”

“You read his mind?”

“I asked him. I don’t invade minds without reason, Alex.”

“My father is a reason!”

Hank said soothingly, “I want Jeremiah freed as much as you do, Alex.” He got up walked behind the chair, holding the back. “Alex, for years I didn’t use my abilities for fear of the white Martian. He knew about me, I knew about him. I used my abilities as little as possible, and protected you and your sister, the DEO, and the earth itself as Hank Henshaw. I stayed Hank Henshaw. I have tried to be the best, sanest, kindest version of Hank Henshaw that I could be.”

“Ι know this. But if you just read one mind…”

“They require me to wear the nullifier when I am in government buildings to prevent just such an activity.” He held it up. “I can turn it off when I go to visit Jemm or the Lanothian, but it records when it is turned off.”

“So they have you on a leash.”

“Of sorts.” He raised his hands. “It is a slight relief, actually. Some of Krakowski’s thoughts betray that she has a prodigious sexual appetite.”

Alex said, “I’ve heard stories in the locker room.” She paused. “I thought you wouldn’t read minds!”

He held up both hands as if to ward her off. “It was an accident! My practice has improved my range, and she thinks very loudly. About everyone. I would be embarrassed if she knew I could read minds.” He looked at his hands, then at her. “But your father is alive. What kind of person am I if I don’t use my abilities to find and protect my first friend on this planet?” 

Alex just looked at him, waiting.

Hank looked steadily at her. “I am not in a government building.” He held up the nullifier. “Do you still have the Faraday cage?”

Alex smiled. “I’ll get it.”

#

Kara was sitting in Mister Carr’s office. This meeting had been postponed twice now, so she was eager that it happen. Carr came in. He was an older gentleman, maybe forties or fifties. His baldness made it hard to tell, but the hair at his temples was dark. “Danvers?” he said.

Kara nodded and repeated her name. She went to stand up, and he waved her down. “You know Kent.”

“Just met him, sir.”

“He’s good. Loyal to the _Planet_ , sadly. It would please me if you’re half that good.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look, you’ve been dumped on me because Cat Grant apparently made some promise to you that you could choose any position you want. Doesn’t wash with me. You prove yourself or you go. Your transcript looks good and some of the administrative skills you showed with Ms. Grant will carry over but at the first sign of weakness, you’re out.”

“I aced my courses—” 

“Big whoop. At least you can structure a sentence, and you’ve got the work ethic to keep up with Cat Grant. Garibaldi spoke highly of you, though, which is a good sign.”

Professor Garibaldi had been freshman year in college. How far back had Carr gone?

“I’m going to pair you with somebody while you learn. The staff looks like a bunch of rejects—I’m going to have to bring someone in, too, but there’s no point to having you with him. Melody Kane.” He pulled out a cigarette, put it in the corner of his mouth, looked at the NO SMOKING sign, and left it dangling there unlit. “According to Miss Grant I have to give you one real assignment a month as well as putting you on obits. So for that real assignment, you’re going to cover Lena Luthor. She’s in town. Good for the society pages. You won’t get anything, but give me a story built around that.”

“Sir? If I do get something?”

“It’ll be a miracle.” He wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it to her. “Go find Melody Kane and give her this.” He turned to his paperwork and then looked up. “And you’re waiting for what?”

#

“Melody Kane?” The woman at the desk was nearing retirement, with a cardigan that looked eerily like one of Kara’s. _I am not aging like that,_ Kara thought. More bizarrely, the wizened old woman was sitting in a pseudo-leather lounge chair that she had brought in. The cardigan was covering a sweatsuit. Melody Kane looked like a fitness granny, swaddled in her chair. She didn’t talk like one. "Melody Kane?" Kara asked. 

“Who the hell wants to know?” 

She didn't _talk_ like a fitness granny. Shocked, Kara handed her the slip of paper from Mr. Carr. "Mr. Carr said—" 

"I can read." Melody, looked Kara up and down, and said, “Holy crap on a cracker with Christ serving the canapes. A request from his holiness.” She studied Kara. “Awright. Three things you gotta know. First, he set you up to fail. I don’t do stuff like Lena Luthor. I suck at it. My beat is crime. Second, nobody’s touched the obits since Princess Diana died, so you gotta row to hoe there. Third, I got two months twenty-seven days to retirement and I sure as hell am not shepherding some wet-behind-the-ears preppie for those last couple of months. I got twelve weeks to get the motherlode, and that’s what I plan to do.”

“What’s the motherlode?”

Kane sat back in her chair. “Secret. Just asking that gets me to turn on the massage feature.” A hum filled the air. 

“But Mr. Carr said he had to give me a real story.”

“Sure, the mackerel snapper had to, but I don’t have to help you. If he fires me today, my retirement fund vests at…” She checked the corner of her computer screen. “Ninety-eight per cent. I can live on that.”

“But you don’t get the story. The motherlode.”

“Well, I don’t get a press pass. It’s just harder if I don’t have a press pass.” Kane smiled, showing absurdly white artificial teeth. “But I can still do it.”

Kara leaned on the lounger, noting that the woman was wearing black tennis shoes. High-tops. Kara said into the woman’s face, “I was an administrative assistant for Cat Grant. I know tough. Tell me what your big story is, I’ll help you with that, you help me get dry behind the ears.”

Melody grinned. “You got spine, anyway. I got some stuff that has to be researched. You show me how you do on that, I might help you.”

Kara shook her head. “No. I’m going to say you help me or you get fired. You made those the options.”

The grin turned into a cackle. “You’re on, preppie. We got an appointment in an hour at the announcement for the new Science Police. We leave in fifteen minutes. How many obits can you handle in fifteen minutes?”

# 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay. Like so many other writers here, I'm a pantser, though I work better when I have a goal to work toward. In this case, I suddenly realized that the ending I had was logically inconsistent.
> 
> Gah.
> 
> So I had to work out a new one.
> 
> I knew that I didn't want to resolve Lena Luthor or the pod--the show is using the first for most of the season, and I have no idea what they're really planning for the pod, so I left it. I do know what Melody Kane's "motherlode" story is, and it will tie in to Lex Luthor, if not Lena, and to Superman.
> 
> Also, I know that Professor Ivo will eventually make an appearance, and as far as his earlier appearance on Arrow, I'm saying "Different universes" and "History change with Flashpoint if it becomes the same universe"
> 
> Hope you enjoy this (brief) addition.


	3. A Call to Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who is the mechanical man...or men...threatening National City?

Kara heard the screaming as she was flying to the press conference. Fortunately, Melody had wanted to take separate cars. But if she followed the scream, she'd be late—

There wasn’t really any choice: Kara changed direction for the screaming. People were running, but she couldn’t see any person who was a threat—

Arms.

Metallic arms were crawling along the road and sidewalk, pulling themselves by fingertips. Cars were going _over_ them, so they were clearly tough, and clearly mechanical. Each of the arms had wires and connectors and shiny knobs of metal bone sticking out of the end. The arms ended in different places, including the wrist, longer arms that included the forearm, and full arms. There were perhaps forty of them.

One man seemed petrified by fear as an arm crawled its way up his body.

_This is silly. Arms by themselves shouldn’t—_

The arm reached his neck. It started to squeeze. His scream stopped, and she zipped down to intercept, then stopped, baffled. She was _strong_ enough to pull the arm free of his throat but doing it without hurting the man was the problem.

Kara peeled the mechanical thumb back and broke it, then each of the remaining four fingers. She tossed the arm aside. “You okay?” The man nodded. She grabbed him and another passerby and flew them both to the top of the building. One elderly woman had fallen when a hand had grabbed her ankle. She glanced at it with X-ray vision and said, “Ma’am? That metatarsal is fractured. Can I set you on the roof while I clear away the threat of the arms? I’ll get you to the hospital after that.” The woman nodded.

An alley nearby had a pair of partly-full dumpsters; she emptied one into the other (wincing at the smell) getting some on her. She set the empty dumpster in the middle of the road and brushed the garbage off, though it left a stain. Working from the outside of the shoal of arms (swArms? she wondered) she tossed them into the dumpster. It was too tall for them to get away. She used her cell phone to unobtrusively snap a couple of pictures of the dumpster full of arms.

By the time she got the woman to the hospital and got to the police, the police briefing room was full. The crowd parted for Kara, though, with mutters.

Melody waved her hand in front of her face. “You stink. Where have you been?”

Kara smiled. “Getting shots of the disembodied robot arms that Supergirl just corralled.”

“Ah. That’s why the the press conference was delayed.” She looked at Kara. “Did you have to rub yourself against a hobo to get the shots? You stand over there.”

#

The sewer stank: it was just a storm sewer to carry runoff, but things had died and rotted down here. The bottom of the tube was a creek, and several times Alex had gotten her boots wet. Her clothes were recreational, but her boots were DEO issue: good footwear was hard to find. The tube was not even Alex’s height: she had to stoop, and Hank had stopped stooping and shifted to a tween boy form. “You didn’t have to come,” he said to Alex. He hadn't changed his voice. “I only need to be near the building now.”

“Now we’re a couple of urban explorers. Much more innocent.”

“I appreciate it.”

Alex's voice was as soft as it could be. “Hey, you’re helping me.”

“And myself. If you’ll pardon the expression, I am looking for my humanity.”

“Another hundred feet to the next intersection, then a block I think. We passed that small intersection—”

A figure unfolded from the water, awkward as a horse. It too was taller than the tube, and blocked the way. “I have a gun,” she said to the figure. Her personal pistol was already in her hand.

“I have a gun,” it said back to her in a copy of her voice.

“Alien?” she asked. She shone her flashlight in its face. It looked human like a mannequin looks human.

“Alien?” it repeated.

“Standoff,” said Hank.

“Standoff,” said the thing in Hank’s voice.

Hank edged around her. “We just want to get by.” He put his hand on the thing’s arm to turn it aside.

The thing didn’t move. It looked at Hank and got _smaller_ until it was the height of the tunnel.

“That’s not good,” Alex said.

“Agreed,” grunted Hank.

“Retreat?”

In answer, Hank went _through_ it, appearing on the other side. It turned and watched him, ignoring Alex. Its movements were smoother now, less awkward.

“That’s how you got in my apartment!” The thing backed up toward Alex and passed through her. Alex whirled around, splashing water.

“Alex, we have a more pressing problem.” Hank and the thing looked at each other. “Is it herding us or simply curious?”

“I am not going to wait.” She lashed out with a kick. It caught her boot before the kick landed and tossed her forward to hit Hank. They tumbled to the ground.

By the time they scrambled to their feet, the thing was gone.

“I was pushing on it with all my strength,” said Hank. “It is as strong as I am.”

“That’s very not good,” said Alex.

#

“Arms,” Kara told James. “But they don’t look like Red Tornado pieces. I know Max had the arm from Red Tornado, but—”

“You need to tell your sister.”

“It’s her day off. I’m not going to interfere with her day off.”

“Then tell Hank.”

“Hank’s day off, too. I told Vasquez.”

“You don’t suppose they’re together, do you?”

She looked at him. “Eww.”

“Not that way!” James grinned. “Weird how your mind went there. I’ll ask Clark. Maybe he’s seen disembodied arms before.” He saw her look. “No?”

“I just feel like...it’s my city. It’s my problem.”

“You’ve already proven that you’re as good as he is. There’s nothing wrong with talking to him—al mayarah, right?” James put his hands on her shoulders. “And he wants to help. But he won’t help if you don’t ask. He told me that. He doesn’t want to intrude.”

“Your Kryptonian accent is terrible.”

“Right.” James rolled his eyes. “Clark has seen some weird stuff. But don’t ask if you don’t want to.”

“I’ll think about it.”

#

“Hey, Winn.” Kara stood there with a rectangle of plastic. By the color he knew that it had once been a keyboard. “I kinda need a replacement.”

“Like the time you broke your phone?” he asked as he took it from her.

“Sorta. I think I was typing too fast.” She sat on the edge of his desk. “I was trying to get through more of these obits while I was thinking about Red Tornado and these arms.”

“Ah. Which reminds me,” Winn said. He handed her a small box, a little larger than a ring box. She looked at it and him.  “Go ahead, open it.”

She did so gingerly. An eye stared back at her. As she watched, the pupil constricted.

“Derek from Accounting got it from a reporter. They both thought it was a marble.”

“And they brought it to you?”

“Vintage toys.” He waved at his desk. “Which are not marbles, and I was going to tell him that. Then I saw the iris move and I knew what it was.”

“Parts of a robot.”

Winn nodded. “Maybe your cousin took one apart?”

“He’d have to have taken apart twenty to account for the arms.” She lowered the rim of her glasses and peered at it. “It’s lined with some material I can’t identify. Camera parts, yes, but something else.”

“T. O. Morrow?” asked Winn. “Maybe someone stole spare parts.”

“I guess,” said Kara. “I’ll find out where his lab was. Maybe they’ve had a break-in.”

Winn went over to a cabinet, unlocked it, and handed Kara a second box. “New keyboard. Don’t type so fast.”

#

 


	4. The Android Attacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The name Dr. Ivo appears; the android attacks twice; and the appearance of Lois Lane.

The records office was windowless, harshly lit, and small. It was merely an antechamber to the real records. There was a counter in front of a door to the real records, and a ledge that ran all the way around the room for people to look at the records. A faded sign behind the counter said PHOTOCOPIES $0.25 EACH. The counter was unattended, but there was one person looking at records.

“Hi, Kara,” said Clark.

“Oh. Hi.”

“If you need the land ownership records for the the block that Thorul’s is on, I’ve got them. Otherwise you have to talk to Belinda at the counter. She’ll be back in a minute.”

“Nope, I need incorporation records.”

“I won’t bug you, then.” He scribbled a note down and slid it over so that she could see it.

_Thorul’s built over former laboratory._

A woman came out. “Here you go.” She handed the sheaf of photocopies to Clark. He counted out some bills and waited for a receipt.

“I need the records for, uh,” Kara read off the incorporation number. “I couldn’t find it online.”

“That’s because it’s not digitized yet. The scanning only goes back to the DC series. Do you need a photocopy?” The woman asked.

“Sure.” Kara frowned and borrowed the pen. _Did they employ T. O. Morrow?_

Clark shook his head. _Dr. Ivo._

That name was familiar. Right. “They went to school together. Graduate studies in nanotechnology.”

Clark smiled. “Very good. Who’s Morrow?”

“I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me who Ivo is.”

“Lois would object...you’re from a rival paper.”

“Where is Lois?”

Clark grinned. “Avoiding her sister and sitting in an office building to get an interview with Lena Luthor.”

“Lois has an interview?”

“Of course not. Lena Luthor’s not talking to the press.”

“That would explain why she hasn’t returned any of my messages.”

#

Alex flashed her badge. “Special Agent Dana Fawkes. FBI.”

“Captain Sawyer.” The woman looked Alex up and down. “Didn’t think this was a Bureau thing.”

Alex said, “Didn’t think this was a Science Police thing.”

“One guy, twenty opponents. The one guy wins. Sounds alien or ultra tech to me. And the bureau’s interest?”

Alex said, “Not going to interfere. Just similar to a case we’d written off as a crank. That was in a different state, so if turns out that the two are connected, it becomes a Bureau thing.”

“I hope they’re not connected,” said Sawyer. “No offence.”

“Don’t want the work,” said Alex. “So no offence taken.”

Sawyer kept looking at Alex, deliberating, and finally said, “Perp comes in to the gym. No one can figure how he beat the security system—you’re supposed to have a key card to get in. It’s restricted to members of the club. One guy with too much testosterone encourages him to leave, probably with violence but he won’t say so. The perp takes it without a reaction, then tries a kick, a good one. The guy flies through the air, stopped by the ropes on the boxing ring there. Violence happens. At the end of it, the guy walks out.”

“No motive?”

“None yet. The weird thing is that apparently the guy changed appearances.”

“Changed appearances?”

Sawyer nodded. “He looked like each person he was fighting.”

#

Kara and Clark were finishing their “snacks”—the wait staff called them “meals”—when the explosion happened. Kara said, “Miss Grant was right. Things are weird around you, Clark.”

“It’s your city. I’m just visiting.”

“This is a job for—”

“Both of us.” They both started for the door.

Then Clark threw bills on the table, and said the server, “I’ll be back for the receipt. I have to expense this.”

From the doorway, Kara shook her head.

#

“You do big threat, I’ll get people out of the way.” She noticed that his accent was different. He talked differently as Superman.

“That’s nice of you, but—”

“Your city.” Clark—no, Superman—was gone.

She floated above and before the man, who was wearing mismatched clothes, like a homeless man. He didn’t look like a homeless man: he looked like a mannequin. Beside him was the wreckage of a car.

“We don’t have to fight,” she called to him.

“We don’t have to fight,” the mannequin said in her voice.

She looked at him. Was he mocking her?

In a different man’s voice, the mannequin said, “You don’t belong here.” Then he picked up the wrecked car and threw it at her.

She caught the car and set it down. At least he wasn't limited to repeating things. "Look, we—"

The mannequin-superhuman moved for a police officer who had come to close. Kara used super-breath to knock the superhuman over before he got to the officer, and Kal-Clark-Superman blew too. Their combined breath skidded the man a half-block back.

“Now he’s close to the other spectators!” she said.

“Sorry. Used to working on my own,” he said. “I’ll get him up here again.” Superman swooped around and flew him back to Kara, then let go.

The man didn’t fall to the ground.

“He can fly, _too?”_ Kara cried to Superman.

“Now I know how they feel facing us,” Superman said.

The man turned, inhaled and blew...and Superman tumbled through the air.

Supergirl moved up behind him and brought both hands down on him. The man smashed into the ground and through it, falling to the bottom of the crater.

Both cousins looked down.

The man was gone. There was no hole. Supergirl looked through various spectra but couldn’t see him. “What did he do? Vaporize? Or go through the rock without damaging it?”

“Okay,” said Superman. “Now you definitely have to call J’onn. Because that’s a J’onn kind of thing.”

Both their phones buzzed. Each pulled it out. “I have to go,” they said to each other.

“Lois is in jail.”

“Miss Grant is in jail.”

They looked at each other.

#

“What was I going to do? She was trespassing!” said Cat Grant.

“But why call me? Why not call Livy? Or your lawyer?”

“Because I knew you’d get me out,” said Cat. Kara looked at her. “Fine. Because I hit your name on speed dial by accident, and they weren’t going to let me have two calls. And I don’t even know what Libby’s last name is.”

“Tell me you won’t press charges against Miss Lane.”

Cat looked at her, then across the room at Lois, who was standing with Clark and Lucy. “No.” She tapped her foot. “I guess not.”

Clark came over. The other two women stayed at a safe distance. “Lois won’t press charges either. The officer says we can go, so long as no one is pressing charges.” He waved to the other women to come over. Lucy came quickly, but Lois more slowly.

“Lois?” said Clark.

Lois said nothing.

Lucy said, “Come on, Lois.”

Lois said in a practiced monotone, “I’m sorry I trespassed on your property.” It sounded as authentic as Naugahyde.

Kara looked at Cat Grant. “Miss Grant?”

“She doesn’t sound like she means it.”

Clark said, “When you apologize for the assault, I’m sure you won’t sound like you mean it either.”

“True enough,” Cat Grant said. She looked around for some way to avoid saying it, found none, and said quickly, “I’m sorry I hit you.”

“I’m going to have a black eye!”

“You shouldn’t have let your guard down!” said Cat.

“You shouldn’t have hit me!” Lois said.

“We’re getting close to shouting volume, here,” said Clark.

“You shouldn’t be in my city!”

“The story started in Metropolis!”

A uniformed policeman came up and thumped his nightstick against his palm meaningfully. “Do people have to go back in the tank?” Both Cat and Lois turned to face him.

“I’ll have your badge,” Cat spat.

“And I’ll have a story about illegal incarceration filed by tomorrow,” Lois said. She turned and put her arm into Cat’s. “We’re going drinking. Luce? You want to come?”

Lucy looked at both of them and then at Kara. She mouthed, “Please come,” to Kara, but Kara shook her head no, her eyes wide. Lucy looked at Clark.

“Girls only,” said Lois.

“Someone has to protect the city from them,” said Clark to Lucy.

Lucy closed her eyes to offer a silent prayer, and then clutched her purse tightly. “Let’s go.”

“Don’t wait up for me, Smallville,” said Lois.

Kara and Clark looked at each other. “She doesn’t know yet,” said Kara.

“About me? Yes. About you? No. Things have been busy,” said Clark.

“Things are always busy, Clark.” Her phone buzzed again. She checked the text message. “Hank and Alex are at my apartment.” She grinned. “Race you!”


	5. Powwow and Pow! Wow.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They pool information, and the android continues it's search.

Kara’s apartment was cozy when she arrived and jumped to crowded after Superman—Clark—came in the window, too. J’onn was there as Hank, along with Alex, Winn, and James. Kara went to hug Alex. There was a blur and it was Clark standing there. He cleared his throat and Kara looked at him. “Oh!” she said. “Alex, this is my cousin—”

Alex went to shake his hand, and Clark enveloped her in a big bear hug. She looked startled and then she relaxed. “Hi,” she said.

“Nice to meet you. Last time I saw you, you were that high.” Clark held out his hand, and then gestured as if he was going to ruffle her hair. She backed away and he grinned. He turned to Hank. “Good to see you. Still wearing that old thing?” His smile got wider.

“It is nice to see you, Kal-el.”

“Do we have Hank or J’onn attending?”

“The location forces Hank to attend.”

“But you’re out, now.”

“Those of us who do not look like cheerleaders or farmhands must needs be more cautious.”

“I suppose.” Clark dragged a chair over to the table, waved to everyone to sit back down.

Alex put a box of sticky buns on the table. “Alex!” Kara said.

“I know my sister,” Alex said. Kara handed out paper towels and plates. “Dig in, people.”

“Mr. Schott?” said Hank.

Winn started, “The android—”

“Miss Grant is calling it Amazo,” said James.

“You’re kidding,” said Kara.

Clark grinned. “She’s always been good at that. She’s the one who called Jimmy ‘Turtleboy.’” James hung his head, his cheeks flushed.

“Turtleboy?” Kara said.

“Not important right now. Clark, you owe me,” James muttered.

“She didn’t know it was James,” Clark explained.

Winn looked around. “Can I? Because you guys are worse than Barry and I ever were.”

Clark looked at Kara as if to say _Who?_  but she looked straight at Winn.

“So I did some looking and if you triangulate the different appearances of Amazo—” Alex coughed. “Please? And you assume a travel time, they center on the lab under Thorul’s.”

“It was lead shielded, and I couldn’t find the entrance.”

“That’s because there isn’t one,” Winn said. “It got sealed off during the renovations.”

“The renovations to make Thorul’s?” asked Kara.

“Before that. None of the owners are related to a Luthor or a Luthor shell corporation until you get to Thorul’s.”

“Whose lab?” asked Clark. He grabbed a sticky bun.

Winn looked at him. “Nobody I’ve ever heard of...Fortune Labs. With a little digging, I was able to get a list of employees. A smattering of applause would be good now. Morrow is not on that list, but Ivo is.” Kara smiled at him.

Hank said, “Fortune? Morrow consulted with them once.” They looked at him. “After the Red Tornado thing, Alex convinced a judge to give us a warrant to look at his old tax records.”

“He tried to kill my sister,” said Alex. “But I was also looking for supercomputers that he might have put his mind into.”

Clark said, “That’s mine. Fortune was a private lab, named after its founder, Amos Fortune.”

“There’s a name,” Kara said.

“Numerology thing,” said Clark. “He was born Paul Magwacker.” Several people winced. Clark nodded. “I know. After he changed his name, he made a fortune in casinos. He had several labs pursuing blue sky interests all through the Americas. He disappeared a bunch of years ago, and the family is just waiting until he can be legally declared dead.” He held up the last bit of sticky bun. “These are good.”

“I know, right?” said Kara.

Winn watched the Kryptonians take another sticky bun each. “These two, they’re related.”

“There was doubt?” asked James.

“We know Morrow consulted, but why?” asked Hank.

“Ah,” said Kara. “Old school buddy of Ivo. Morrow’s better with robotics, so Ivo called him in and he consulted.” She looked at James. “Please. I looked at their transcripts. Morrow was much better at robotics. Ivo excelled at nanotechnology. Which is what the things in the eyeball were. Something nanotech.”

“What eyeball?” asked Hank and Clark. Kara filled them in.

“So Lena Luthor’s people activated these parts? Including Amazo.”

Clark nodded. “I think so. Maybe accidentally, maybe on purpose.”

“So we take the robot down,” said Kara. “What does he do? Tornadoes? Fire? Water?”

“He copies powers. He’s already got mine,” said Hank.

“And some of ours, now,” said Clark. “So he’s going to be tough.”

“But what does he want? What is he looking for?”

Winn said, “His father. He wants Ivo, his father..”

“And all he’s met so far is violence,” added James.

Alex, at least, had the grace to blush. “If he copies powers, then force isn’t the solution.”

“What do you suggest, Agent Danvers?”

“We could provide an Ivo substitute,” said Alex, looking at Hank.

“I’m not going around as a dead man!” said Hank. “It’s disrespectful.”

“You do it every day,” said Clark.

“That’s different.” He glared at them. “All right, it’s not, but that was survival and this—”

Clark nodded.  “We do need to know what Ivo sounded like if we’re going to pull it off. Are there any recordings of him?”

Winn was already typing. “His family took down his social media presence.” He sighed while searching. “Ivo never had news articles about him, so no luck there. Unless a fellow employee comes forward with a recording, we are out of luck.”

Hank sat back. “I’m grateful.”

“So the alternative is punching?” asked Kara.

“I have an idea. Hey, Jimmy—sorry, James—remember that time you got turned into—”

“Not an answer, Clark.”

“But—”

“Not an answer.”

“Well, if there’s a temporary power and it goes away, maybe his copied power does, too. That’s all,” said Clark.

“Did he copy our weaknesses?” asked Kara. “Will Kryptonite hurt him?”

“We have synthetic Kryptonite at the DEO,” said Alex.

“Magic works, too,” said Clark.

“There’s magic?” said Winn.

“Magic is just science we haven’t worked out yet,” said Alex.

Clark nodded. “The science we haven’t worked out yet works, too.” He added to Kara, “Watch out for that.”

“Since we don’t know anyone magic, that’s not relevant right now,” Kara said. “Unless you have a friend, Clark?”

“She’s indisposed.”

“Wait, magic is real _and_ you have a friend who is magical?” asked Winn. He gestured with his hands. “Mind...blown.”

“Multiverse thing.” Clark shrugged. “You can never depend on magic. So our best bet is places associated with Ivo?”

“Magic is real,” repeated Winn.

“Hold your My Little Pony horses,” said James. “Can you dig up places that were significant to Ivo? Then we can watch them.”

“Easy to do,” said Winn. “And ha ha. I am _not_ a Brony. I just admire the character designs. Intellectually.” He paused. “That is not something a cool guy would say.”

#

Alex and Hank sat in the car, looking at the slip that held the _Immortal Locus_. “I can’t believe that Ivo had a boat,” said Alex. She passed Hank another bag of Chocos. Hank took them and peeled them open, then savoured the smell like a wine connoisseur.

“He had depths, that man,” said Hank.

Alex hit his shoulder. “You did that on purpose!”

“Superman seems to like you,” said Hank.

“He hugged me. I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“He is your cousin. On earth, cousins often hug.”

“Still feels weird.” Alex reached over for a cookie. “Mind?” She stopped and instead pointed to a man walking out onto the slip. “That guy, he’s supposed to be hospitalized. He’s one of the guys from the gym.”

“Sir!” Hank called as he got out of the car.

“Hey!” Alex called down the slip. “Hey! Are you looking for Dr. Ivo?”

The man stopped and faced them. “Professor Ivo,” said the man. His voice sounded synthesized, like a phone answering service.

“Sure,” said Alex. _He never got a professorship._ “We know where he is. Get in the car and we’ll take you to him.”

The man, incongruous in his gym outfit, came towards Alex and tried to put his hand on her forehead. Alex made a noise and ducked out of the way.

“You do not know,” said the man. “You presume he is dead.”

Alex said to Hank, “You didn’t say you used that power on him.”

“I did not!”

“I can scan all powers, whether used or not. You have none.” He swung to hit Alex, but Hank dove at him. Both of them tumbled off the slip into the water. The water roiled. Alex pulled out her pistol, despite knowing that it would have little to no effect.

Two figures shot into the air, still fighting. One was J’onn; the other kept shifting forms: now one boxer, now another gym rat, now Superman, now J’onn himself. The thing blew powerfully and J’onn tumbled half a block away. While he was returning, the thing looked at the boat and flew through the deck, into it. J’onn followed, then reappeared.

“He is gone. He retrieved something, then disappeared through the bottom of the boat. I could not follow him.”

“You okay?”

“He—or perhaps Superman—packs quite a punch.” He wiggled his jaw. “I will be fine. Contact Vasquez. This just became DEO business.” They ran for the car.

“What did he get?”

“Ivo had an alien artifact. Now the android has it.”

 


	6. Those Who Worship Evil's Might

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The android gets more powerful! Fights! Lois Lane has a hangover!

Cactus and Joshua trees had been flattened for miles around. Raw earth scarred the land where hills had been ripped up. Kara lay on the wreckage of a black SUV, thinking, _Any minute I’ll wake up. I’ll be in bed. It was just a dream._

“Ma’am?” said Vasquez in her ear.

“Here,” groaned Kara.

“I’m not getting a response from any of the others. Agent Danvers or Director Henshaw or any member of the fire team. Can you give me a sit-rep?”

“Alex...don’t see her. J’onn is unconscious over...there. Looks like he was protecting the fire team, but they’re out too. Superman is trying to hold on to the android, but it’s as strong as he is… I’m on my way!” She managed to stand up, and Alex appeared beside her, and grabbed her arm to steady her. “Hiding?” Kara asked her.

“Should have. Was trying to wake J’onn, but he seems to be stuck in dispersed mode, half in the ground.”

“It’s the alien artifact, isn’t it?”

“Protects the android from fire and Kryptonite.”

“The artifact has to have a weakness, too.”

“Everything has a weakness, Kara, but we can’t tell what. It looks like a green ring.”

“Opposite colour to green is red. Something red? Red Tornado was meant to fight it?”

“Seems kind of silly.” Alex shrugged. “Dammit. I hate feeling helpless like this.”

Kara nodded. “Superman’s losing. I’ve rested long enough. Find something red.” She shot up into the air.

Behind her, Alex sighed and started looking around. “Vasquez? My latest weird request—”

#

Superman and J’onn had already inadvertently taught the android a great deal about fighting techniques, and it learned quickly. Its movements had become smooth and fluid since Kara fought it in the street. It twisted and changed shape as it wrestled with Superman. Kara glimpsed it shifting to Alex, J’onn, and two police officers as it fought, wreathed under the green glow of the artifact.

“Here!” Superman said, and shoved the android toward Kara. The thing’s hands stayed on Superman and its arms stretched like taffy as the body shot through the air. Kara. Kara brought both knees up to her chin and hit it, hard, so that it recoiled back to Superman, who was waiting with a punch.

The android seemed unfazed.

The android said, “I seek Ivo. I seek his instructions.”

“He’s dead!” cried Kara.

“You only suspect that. You do not know it.” It paused. “I shall get the people you regard as excellent investigators.”

It zipped back toward National City. Superman said, “Go! Jimmy says you’re faster.”

Kara nodded and took off. Kal undoubtedly picked Lois. _Who do I think is a better investigator? Cat? Or James? Or Winn? Or Mr. Carr?_

 _Just follow him,_ she thought.

He phased through a hill. “Aw, come on!” said Kara as she flew up and over. There he was! He had gained a bit of distance on her, but she thought maybe she could catch him—

 _Faster_ , she told herself.

But he was as fast as she was.

Before she knew it, they were in National City. The android went through a wall and Kara stopped short. She couldn’t go through walls. This wasn’t her building.

She scooted around to find an open window, then race through the building, scanning with X-ray vision to find the android.

There, with Lois Lane.

#

The sunglasses inside were not to hide her appearance, but rather to protect her from the light. The fluorescent lights were uncomfortably harsh and bright today. The truth is, Lois Lane had a massive hangover and her only consolation was that Cat’s was probably as bad, despite her non-dairy, non-gluten, yoga- and spin-class-fuelled lifestyle.

Years near Superman had schooled her to identify possibly dangerous situations. When the glowing green mannequin came into the room, that seemed like it might be one. She slipped behind the potted tree in the corner. That and the sunglasses gave her a moment of camouflage.

“I seek Lois Lane,” said the android to the receptionist.

“I don’t ask their names, I just tell them to sit,” said the receptionist, calmly. “So if you’d wait?”

That was the point when Supergirl burst loudly through the door. Lois slipped out to the hole in the doorway and started taking pictures with her cellphone. She wished she had a real photographer, but when a scoop falls in your lap, you make the best of it.

Supergirl slammed into the android, knocking him through the wall and into the next office, which was occupied by an attractive blonde woman. Lois stepped forward.

Yup, she though. There’s Lena Luthor.

Lois trotted through the receptionist's office to the hole in the wall.  Luthor or not, Lena didn’t deserve to be flattened by a green glowing mannequin. “Hey!” she shouted, and whistled. “I’m here. Lois Lane!”

“You are not as pretty as his image of you.”

Lois looked at him, one hip cocked. “Really? That’s what you’re going to lead with?” _Damn hangover,_ she thought.

“I’ve got him, Miss Lane!” said Supergirl.

“But you will feel obliged to rescue this one,” said the android. He punched a hole in the wall and with startling speed threw Lena Luthor out the hole.

“Crap,” muttered Supergirl, so that only Lois could tell. She streaked out of the hole after Lena Luthor.

“I’ll be fine,” called Lois after Supergirl. To the android, she said, “I assume you want to kill me or kidnap me.”

In answer, the android whisked her away so fast that she couldn’t breathe.

#

“We’ve never seen one of these rings before,” explained Alex to the professor. “So we showed it to some of the alien inmates. None of them would tell us anything. Do you recognize it?”

The professor leaned on his desk and looked at the blurry photos again. “Where did you get these?”

“Here, these photos are better. We took them out of the safe of the person who was guarding or hoarding the artifact.”

The professor looked at the new photos, then back to the blown up photo that showed the emblem. He finally said, “You’re in trouble.”

“Because?”

“There is a squad of trouble shooters. They divide the whole galaxy into sectors. Each sector is guarded by one operative. Do you understand that? The worst problems, the absolutely worst problems, for light years around are dealt with by one of these operatives, alone. To travel, to handle these problems, the operatives are given weapons of almost unimaginable power, power that is limited only by the wielder. A person could go his whole life without seeing one, and some people believed they were myths...stories to frighten criminals. When one dies, the artifact searched for a local replacement.” He shrugged. “I don’t know if you can refuse the call.”

“Who do they answer to?” Alex asked.

“Themselves, I think.” He shrugged. “There might be a higher organization, but it never became apparent at out level. Like your DEO—it reports to someone in the government, but the aliens it deals with have no idea who that is.”

“They must be vulnerable to something,” Alex insisted.

“Of course they are. But the weaknesses vary between rings. This one might be vulnerable to wood, that one might be vulnerable to the aromatics in horseradish, the next one to a particular sound or a particular colour. If you can find the weakness of a particular ring, you might be able to defeat it.”

“Might? Horseradish is pretty common.”

He smiled. “True enough, but the individual operatives are experts with their rings. They have ways to compensate for those weaknesses.”

“Do you have a name for these boogeymen?”

“We called them—” he said something unearthly “—because they glowed green. The translation would be ‘green lantern.’”

#

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, a power ring from Oa makes its appearance. Can Hal Jordan/John Stewart/Guy Gardner/Kyle Rayner/Katma Tui/Kilowog/etc. be far behind?


	7. A Plan for all Seasons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winn is kidnapped too; Alex comes up with a plan; Clark discovers whom Kara is dating.

James Olsen sat on the table in his office and dribbled dice through his hands, let them fall back into the bowl. 

Winn stood in his doorway. “Hey.”

“Hey.” James brushed off his palms and stood up. “Problem?”

“Was looking to see how you were holding up. She is the sister of your ex-fiancée, and a friend.”

James smiled. “True. Superman will save her. He always does.”

“And there’s Supergirl, too,” Winn said. He looked at James for a moment. “So why do you look hopeless?”

“This? Nah. My face just does this.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Lois Lane has been kidnapped by a super-science menace, Cat Grant is obsessed with beating Lois Lane. All the situation lacks is Perry White telling me not to call him ‘Chief.’ It’s like being eighteen again, and not in a good way.”

“But it’s different now.”

“Really? It doesn't seem that way." He shrugged. "I thought I was making a change, but...it’s just the same old stuff.”

“You’re dating Kara.”

James looked at Winn as if to say 'No' but changed his mind. “That...is a secret.”

Winn shook his head. “Not to me. Maybe you have to keep it secret from everyone else. Anyway, that's not why I came...I have a question.”

“Yeah. Anything. Shoot.”

“Was it tough making the change of jobs?” James looked at him. “I got an offer, and it’s really a good one, but I don’t know. This one’s familiar. I mean, I can do it in my sleep.”

“Then it’s totally time for a new job,” said James. “I’m bummed because this situation is _too_ familiar. I needed a change and apparently I still need a change.”

“That’s kind of what I thought.”

The wall burst open, and both James and Winn were knocked down. “Winn Schott,” came an artificial voice. A green glowing mannequin stood there.

“He just left,” lied James. He pulled up the table so it hid the two of them. Dice scattered across the rubble-strewn floor.

“No, I’m Winn Schott,” said Winn as he stood up. “You’re Amazo.” James grabbed the Nikon digital off the shelf and started taking shots of the android. 

“I need you,” said Amazo. 

And like that, Amazo and Winn were gone, leaving James standing in the wreckage of his office. 

_ Okay, some changes, _ thought James.  _ In the old days, that would have been me. _

A die rolled across the floor and through the hole in the wall.

#

“He’s got Winn, too?” said Superman. They were meeting at Kara’s loft, because that was closer than DEO headquarters: Superman, Kara, Hank, and Alex.

“But Amazo—” Hank grimaced when he said the name “—is telepathic, so he will know if they try to escape or to let us know where they are."

“They are hidden somewhere with an Internet connection, because Winn isn’t useful otherwise,” said James. Alex looked at him. “Okay, that doesn’t narrow it down much.”

“Internet connection, secret, able to stash Lois Lane there while he went to get Winn,” said Alex. “I can think of only one place that the android knows about.”

“The hidden lab under Thorul’s,” said Kara. “Think you can find the entrance, Alex?”

“We can make one,” said Superman. He flexed his fingers.

“So that’s the plan? We go in and fight?” asked Alex.

“Three against one,” said Superman. “Amazo is only as strong as one of us.”

“That we know of,” Alex said. “It could amp up to be as strong as all three of you, or ten of you. It would be like fighting Non’s army all over again.”

“But we beat that army,” Kara said.

“No, we beat Non and Indigo. The army beat us every time we met them.”

There was a pause while they looked at each other. “So what do you suggest, Agent Danvers?” asked Hank.

“Use our brains, sir. We give him Ivo,” said Alex. “A fake Ivo...you or someone else. I looked at the records Winn dug up...he shared a class with my mother in graduate school. She knew both Ivo and Morrow. With her help, we can lay a trail for our two best investigators that they will follow and believe. At the end of it is Ivo and a trap. Amazo won’t detect it from Winn and Miss Lane using telepathy because they’ll believe it too.” She pulled out the nullifier she had got from J’onn. “And he won’t be able to use Martian abilities when we get in range because this nullifies them.”

“And the green ring?”

“Professor Luzano gave me some suggestions. I might not be the programming whiz that Winn is, but I can make something that cycles through the visible light spectrum and sounds to see if he’s vulnerable to any of them. Heck, I can even get some horseradish from the commissary.”

"Horseradish?" Hank looked puzzled.

James said, “I have an idea, too.”

“Yes, Mr. Olsen?” asked Hank.

James shook his head. “It’s a skill I picked up during my whacky adventures with my pal, there.” He nodded to Superman. “I’d rather you didn’t know about it, because I don’t want Amazo to read it from anyone’s mind. When the nullifier is on, I can get next to him and try it.”

“That could be dangerous.”

James shrugged. “It’s always dangerous around these two.”

Kara hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

Superman looked on and glowered. “When this is done, you and I are going to have a talk about this.” He indicated James and Kara.

“That makes this easier,” said James. “Knowing I’m dead either way.” Then he grinned. 


	8. Running the Gauntlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amazo's distractions peel them away until there is only Kara (and James) left.

“This computer equipment is antiquated,” Winn complained. “Look at this—it must be ten years old!”

“Probably because Professor Ivo disappeared eight years ago,” said the dark-haired woman. 

“I’m Winn Schott,” he said and to forestall the look of terror that sometimes accompanied the name, he added. “Junior.”

She looked puzzled for a moment and then said, “So your dad—?”

“Yeah,” Winn said. “You know about it?”

“Lois Lane.” She nodded. “I was just in school when it happened.” She looked around. “Internet connection?”

Winn typed. “Yes. At least I can ping my home server. Big fan of yours, by the way, and I know your sister.”

“Thank you, and condolences.” Lois looked around. The lights were on; the air system hummed. “Someone’s still paying the bills.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a USB stick. “If these things have USB ports, I’m okay.”

Winn pulled out his. “Me too. Portable apps and OS so I don’t have to customize everything. Hey, Sparky!” The android glided over to him. “Do you want to examine these before we use them?”

The android—Amazo—extended its hand. A USB port appeared in the heel of its palm, and it closed its fist on the stick, then took the other. “To answer your thought, Miss Lane, it would not damage me. I do not run on either operating system, so malware for them does not affect me.” It opened its hands. “They are acceptable.”

“Super,” said Winn. “Non-ironically.”

“Superman will come and rescue me,” said Lois. 

“Supergirl and me, same thing.” He looked at Lois. “But just as friends.”

“Then I must delay both of them,” said the android, and it left the lab.

“You have a plan?” asked Winn.

“We do what he wants until an opportunity arises. He can read our minds,” said Lois. 

“That’s kind of creepy,” said Winn, plugging his stick into one of the computers and booting it up. “I have thoughts I’m not sure I want people knowing.” While waiting for the computer to boot, he started looking through the desk drawers.

“I know I do, but you get used to the psychics,” said Lois. “It’s the magicians that bug me.” She laced her hands together and bent them backwards to stretch them.

“Score!” Winn pulled out a bottle of whiskey, two-thirds full. “They left in a hurry.” He pulled out two jelly glasses, one with Fred Flintstone and the other with George Jetson. Lois took them and rubbed them with a tissue from her purse. Winn poured whiskey in each glass.

“Are you trying to get me drunk, Mr. Schott?”

“Sort of, Miss Lane. See, we should search for Dr. Ivo because Amazo has kidnaped us and is forcing us to. But there’s nothing that says we have to be at peak efficiency while we do it.” He toasted her. “Cheers.” They each drank, and Winn refilled the glasses.

Lois toasted him again. “In that case, Mr. Schott, bottoms up, and I will tell you about magicians I have known while we ‘search.’”

#

Supergirl noticed the people first, perhaps because of her experience with Myriad: people motionless, standing on balconies and at the tops of buildings. She stopped in mid-air. “They’ll jump.” Superman, who had insisted on carrying James, stopped in mid-air. So did J’onn.

“You sure?” Superman asked.

“Pretty sure.”

J’onn examined one. “They are under mental control.” He made what would have been a grimace on Hank’s face. “I can free them, but only one at a time.”

Superman looked up and down the street. The jumpers were concentrated on the highest buildings of each block, but there were six or seven on each building on each side of the street.

“Then go. Here’s Jimmy. James, I mean.” Supergirl took the man. “I have this. I’ll join you when they’re safely down.”

“You’re sure?” asked Supergirl. Superman nodded.

Kara and J’onn flew on with James.

#

As soon as the trio passed, the first building’s group jumped. Superman blew down at the street: his breath bounced and ricocheted between the buildings and formed a cushion of air that slowed the dozen falling people until they landed as only hard as if they had jumped from the top of a child’s slide.

Superman looked ahead and saw the other three lingering, watching. “Go!” he shouted to make them move on.

_ I could have done that,  _ Supergirl thought.  _ I could have saved Kelly. If I had only seen— _

_ Seen _ , she thought.

“J’onn,” she said. “When you looked in the man’s mind, what was going to trigger him to jump?”

“When he saw any of us.”

“Can we be invisible?”

“I can.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Fly closer to me, and we can.”

She felt just a little better after that.

#

_ All of you have faith in Agent Danvers. _

“Did you hear—?” asked Kara.

“He’s speaking mentally,” said J’onn.

“I hate psychics,” said James. “Mentalists, psionicists, espers, illusionists. The whole crew. I hate’em.”

“Really?” said J’onn.

“Present company excepted, of course. Don’t drop me.”

“Shhh!” said Kara.

_ You have confidence that she will find a way to escape. Therefore I have not threatened her.  _

“I guess that’s good….” said Kara.

“Wait for it,” said James.

_ However, her mother while intelligent is apparently befuddled by the intricacies of instant messaging. _

“Kara!”

“I’ve had to explain it to her like a hundred times. Sorry.”

_ I choose to threaten her. Bring me Ivo or she dies. _

A mental image of Eliza appeared, suspended over a vat of some kind of steaming liquid. The liquid was opaque, and silvery-blue: it looked like molten dawn.

“If she dies, you die,” said Kara.

“I recognize that vat,” said James.

“Where is it?” asked J’onn.

“Nowhere. It’s from a movie. I  _ know _ it’s from a movie but it doesn’t make any difference: it  _ feels _ real.”

“So she’s not there?” asked Kara. “I don’t believe you.”

“My people did this as recreation,” said J’onn. “Consider this. Amazo would not have had time to go to Midvale, get her, and come back, even at your top speed,” said J’onn.

“So it’s a Martian thing?”

“It’s an illusion of sorts. It feels real, even though you know it isn’t.”

“Like lucid dreaming,” said James.

“Exactly. I can take control of it by entering it, but I cannot function in the outside world while I do it.”

“Save her,” Kara said. “Even if it’s all fake because I can’t help... _ feeling _ …it’s real.”

“Agreed. I shall rejoin you when I am finished.” He stopped in mid-air, suspended over the street.

Kara flew on, carrying James.


	9. The Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And, with luck, we wrap it all up (but leave threads for the rest of the season).

“This plan of yours,” Kara asked James. “What do you need?”

“I need to stand beside him. The jammer will help because he’ll assume that’s the reason I’m there.”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

James nodded. “I’m not going to tell you. Just--he’ll still be as strong as you are. When I’m done, get me out of there. If you can.”

Kara nodded. “I will.”

#

  
Amazo was not in the street outside the lab, but in the door to Thorul’s. The android stepped inside as Supergirl approached.

“You know it’s a trap, right?”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Kara. She knew the layout of the restaurant from the earlier fight: high ceilings, location of the kitchen and washrooms, private rooms, platforms to make it multi-level. Tables everywhere. Flammable cleaning solutions in the janitor’s closet by the kitchen entrance. A quick scan with X-ray vision showed hostages, so using fire wasn’t an option. After James was done, her best bet was to get the android outside. “My cape will protect you.”

“Some.” James looked at the doorway. “Let’s do this.”

Suddenly James was standing beside the android while Kara hovered feet away.

“Hey, buddy,” said James, putting his hand on the android’s back and shaking his hand. Befuddled by the loss of his psychic senses, the android looked at James. “It’s a jammer. Neutralizes your Martian abilities.” He dove to one side. “Supergirl--catch!”

He tossed a green ring up to her...but halfway it veered off, toward the doorway...and flew away. Kara and the android both looked at it, but when the android moved to get it, Kara cried, “No you don’t!” and rammed him in mid-air, driving him through the outside wall and into the street.

The android broke her hold and started off--but J’onn J'onnz was floating at the end of the street. The android looked in the other direction, and Superman waited there.

It dashed inside and returned holding James by the throat.

“Give me Professor Ivo.”

“Wait…” said Kara.

“Wait?” asked Superman. “It has Lois. And Winn.”

“It has caused much damage,” said J’onn. “Why wait?”

“What’s wrong with finding Ivo for him? If Ivo is alive, or if we can find evidence of his death?” She looked at the two of them. “If it promises not to hurt anyone in the meantime.”

“Nothing, I guess,” said Superman.

“Because when I thought Eliza was threatened, and when I thought James would die, I realized, it just wants what any of us want. It wants to know its parents. It wants to know its purpose.”

“It can use DEO facilities,” said J’onn. “Though I warn you that they are not omnipotent. There are answers that I have been searching for that they cannot find.”

“Agreed?” Kara asked Amazo.

“How do I know that this isn’t a trick?”

“Read my mind. James, turn off the jammer.”

Reluctantly, James reached into his pocket and touched the box. Amazo looked at Supergirl for a moment and then dropped James. “Agreed. I shall bring you the investigators now.”

In an instant, the android deposited Winn and Lois at their feet. Superman said, “Lois, are you drunk?”

She held up a finger. “But still mobile. I can hold my liquor.” She looked over at Winn, who had just finished vomiting over a sewer grate. “Unlike some people.”

“Yech.” Winn wiped his mouth with his tie. “In my defense…” He held up a hand.

“Yes?” asked James. “I want to hear this.”

“It was a scheme.” Kara and James nodded at him. “A scheme. Throwing up might have been part of it.”

“Or not,” said James.

“This is what happens around Cat Grant,” mused Lois. “Too much drinking.”

#

Clark had his feet up on the coffee table in Kara’s loft. “I wonder where the ring went?”

“Professor Luzano said that the ring finds its next owner. I don’t know what the criteria are, or how Ivo got hold of it.”

“I hope we’ve seen the last of it,” said Clark. “Hey. Thanks.”

Alex looked at him. “For what?”

“Well, the Amazo stuff, but mostly for taking Kara in and being a sister to her. I’m proud to be related to you.”

“I might have had problems with it when I was a kid, but I am so glad that she is my sister. So welcome to the family.” Clark started to get up, and Alex said, “No hugging.”

He laughed and sat back down. “Kara’s pretty special.”

The door opened. “You’re making me blush,” said Kara.

“You heard that?” said Alex.

“These days I X-ray my apartment and use super-hearing before I come in.”

“Doesn’t everyone?” asked Clark as he took groceries from James and Winn.

“I don’t,” said James.

“You two…” said Clark.

“We’re going to get the talk,” said James.

“Like, when a man loves an alien very very much? That talk?” asked Winn.

“I’m just a little worried about you two,” said Clark.

“It’s not a human-alien thing, is it?” asked James. “Because you are asking Lois…”

Clark stopped for a moment, then laughed. “No, but that’s the excuse I was going to use.” He shook his head. “You’re both grown-ups. Try not to hurt each other. Be good to each other. Work at it. It’s not always fated to be, like me and Lori, but give it a fair try.”

James nodded. Kara hugged Clark. “That is a much better version of the talk than I expected.”

“Lori?” Winn asked James.

“Mermaid he used to date.”

“Mermaids are real?” Winn touched his head to make the “mind blown” gesture and then winced. “Oh, my head.”

Alex looked around, then cracked a bottle of wine. She poured for everyone but Winn, who stuck to orange juice. “Where’s Lois?”

“Where do you think?” Clark said. “Lena Luthor’s office.”

#

No one knew when Lena Luthor was going to arrive at the office. Her penthouse was connected, so she could get in without passing through the outside. She just appeared: sometimes early in the morning, sometimes late.

Kara was sitting in the waiting room when Lois Lane came in. Kara looked at her. She looked at Kara quizzically and then said, “Cat Grant’s person. You got her out of jail.”

“Kara Danvers.” She shook hands with Lois. “Honour to meet you.”

“Cat thinks I need a baby-sitter?”

Kara shook her head. “Same story as you. More or less.” _Let Clark tell her, in his own time._

“A reporter.”

“Trying to be.”

“Carr is at the CatCo magazine now, isn’t he?”

Kara was startled. “Yes.”

“I worked with him at the Post. Good guy. Sucker for space stuff. If you really really need a story, sometimes you can bribe him with space memorabilia.” Lois turned to the receptionist. “News since yesterday?”

“I don’t know what Ms. Luthor’s schedule is.” The woman looked harried, even though it wasn’t yet nine. Maybe she always looked harried.

“Then you’re a pretty poor receptionist,” said Lois.

“New job,” said the receptionist, obviously lying. The phone rang. She answered it, listened, hung up. “You have five minutes, Ms. Lane.”

Kara was resisting the temptation to spy on them when Lois was escorted out by security guards. Lena Luthor appeared at the door. “I don’t comment on those sorts of things.” She spotted Kara. “And you are?”

“Kara Danvers.”

Lena nodded. “The messages.” She sighed. “I don’t need a reporter right now.”

Kara said, “Are you okay?”

“Off the record? I could use a friend.” Lena looked at her for a moment.

Kara shrugged. “So we’ll talk. And when we go on the record again, I’ll warn you. I mean, if you admit to something illegal, I have to tell people.”

Lena laughed. “Not admitting to wrongdoing was the first thing my mother taught me. Come on in.” She said to the receptionist, “Bailey, clear me the next hour, and bring in—” she looked at Kara.

“Tea, please.”

“Tea for both of us.”

-30-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course, the EPs have teased details of the new season that contradict what I've said here. Oh, well.


End file.
